Heating Up

Another week down and another milestone achieved.  Work had me pretty busy so it was a good week to let some other guys do some work.  The HVAC guys replaced the old heater with a new one and all the ducting.  I did assist in pulling down the asbestos covered ductwork to save some $$ but they did the rest. Pretty good group to do it all in three days.  Other than that, we have water to the kitchen again, a new sink, faucet, and garbage disposal. I hooked up the ice maker and water dispenser to the refrigerator.  The boys relocated a bunch of tree limbs we had piled up and started digging a hole on side of the house for the egress windows, which resulted in tearing out the sprinkler system (I need a summer project too right?).  It was a very cold weekend so they did good to get outside.  I think we went to Home Depot about 5 times and Lowes once...lucky stores.
Here are some photo updates.

Asbestos in a bag.  

The "Beast" and the tool collection area.

 Before the HVAC completion

 After...  The new heating unit.  Its very quiet and takes up about half the room as the previous.  

We replaced the sink and faucet today.  What used to be white and dated is now stainless and high tech.  Here is the before...

 And here is the after.  It took all day and a couple of trips to Home Depot. Still need to connect the dishwasher drain and water line, but that's simple enough.  The faucet is touchless.

 Marcie replaced those awful brass pull knobs with sleek modern bars.  Made a big difference. That wicked tile will be removed soon, as Marcie is at her end on those...she pulled one off already

And here is the find of the week.... I found two of these guys. They fell out of the rafters as I was removing the ductwork.  One is in great shape (shown) and the second has big dents on each side.  Marcie sent some photos to some beer paraphernalia collectors just to get some more info.  This beer was made in the 40's and 50's.  Each can is worth between $400 and $600...quite the find I'd say.

One more week down

Here are some progress photos.  Not much happened this week because work had me pretty busy, but made a little progress with the mechanical room.

Here is the before and after electrical panel.  I didn't do this work, I'm not brave enough.

Here I am tearing down some of the existing galvanized plumbing.

 Here is the beginning of the framing.  Had to drill and concrete tap the pressure treated plates down first.  The concrete, being 75 years old, is quite hard and is eating through my bits much faster than anticipated.

 First corner studs are up!

And my cold water manifold is built and in place

 First Wall!

 Second wall

 Third Wall

 Isn't this fancy.  All the piping is being replaced with PEX. I built cold (blue) and hot (red) water looping manifolds so that I can run direct lines to each fixture as I choose and it gives me the ability to shut off each fixture individually instead of shutting down the whole house, when needed.  The main shut off is also there (far left).  

 Got my hot water back on, woohoo!

 The extents of the mechanical room. Had to leave this wall open so we could relocate the heater.

 Its looking like a hallway.

 And this is where I stopped.  I have some cleaning up to do.

Also installed a new front door.  Here is a before and after.

Before...

After.... with a new mailbox even.

A few more pictures to look at.

This First picture is of Richland in 1948.  You can see our house being built (in the red circle). We thought this was pretty cool, and what are the odds of actually finding a picture like this?

Here is Marcie hard at work on one of the bedrooms.  She painted pretty much everything this week!

The first room to have the floors exposed

 And here we are tearing out the chimney flue to the old oil burning furnace.  It ran from the basement floor to a couple feet beyond the peak of the roof.  Took a couple days to remove it.  Tav has shiny new gloves.

Bryer's room before (above) and after (below) paint and carpet removal.

 Once the carpet is up, the real work begins.  Here Marcie is pulling a line of the hundred thousand or so staples.

Living room, hallway, and kitchen

Tav is tearing out the remaining fireplace hearth.  That whole wall was brick.  Bryer worked to haul the bricks to the backyard and stacked them neatly for future use. Lula Belle supervised.

Here are a couple of finds from demolishing the basement fireplace.  Seems fitting.

The results of the week included painting the remaining bedrooms upstairs (two coats), the living room, and the dining room.  Marcie was very busy.  We pulled all the carpet out of the house and removed about half the staples so far and most of the tack strips.  We pulled out the furnace flue and the second fireplace chimney, which was fun, and loud, and dirty, and very rednecky. All the remnants were removed from the basement so we can start framing (we picked up the permit on Monday).  Bryer also worked on collecting the leaves in the backyard, which totaled about 377 bags, about half of what is still needed.
We also ordered two exterior doors, two sinks for downstairs, two faucets, and picked up a faucet for the kitchen.  We investigated how to demo the wall between the kitchen and the living room, so now there is a hole where there shouldn't be....ask a question, get an answer.
And I installed a doorbell. Oh, and cut down a tree.

We have met 5 of our neighbors already and are now a part of the neighborhood watch committee.  We have only been here a week and met more neighbors than we did in 7 years in Oregon.  They keep stopping by to introduce themselves, bringing us treats and phone numbers. Different, for sure.